UN Security Council to discuss Thai-Cambodia dispute

 June 23, 2008

AFP Very Hot News!!!

PREAH VIHEAR, Cambodia (AFP) – The UN Security Council is expected to discuss a tense military standoff between Cambodia and Thailand this week as more troops amassed along the border, officials said Wednesday.

Thailand’s ambassador to the UN, Don Pramudwinai, said the Security Council on Thursday would discuss the border dispute that has troops from both countries facing off near the 11th-century Preah Vihear temple.

“I have been informed that the UN has included Preah Vihear on the emergency agenda to be discussed at the Security Council meeting tomorrow,” he told reporters in Bangkok.

More than 500 Thai troops and at least 1,000 Cambodian soldiers are squaring off over the small patch of land near the temple ruins, but Cambodian officials said Wednesday thousands more Thai troops were positioned along the border.

Cambodian cabinet spokesman Phay Siphan estimated about 4,000 Thai troops in total have gathered along the frontier in several areas — not just near Preah Vihear.

“They just want to show off their muscle, but we don’t care about that. We stick to a peaceful way to solve the problem,” Phay Siphan told AFP.

Cambodia has sent heavy weapons to reinforce troops on its northern border in Anlong Veng, where there is also disputed territory, said a military official on condition of anonymity.

“There are more (Thai) troops now at Anlong Veng than there are here (at Preah Vihear). There are tanks and artillery,” said the Cambodian colonel with close ties to Thai armed forces.

But Thailand denied it was reinforcing the frontier.

“Thailand has not been building up forces along the border,” deputy army spokeswoman Colonel Sirichan Ngathong told AFP.

“We maintain the same amount of soldiers, and more than 400 soldiers were sent to the overlapping area.”

Cambodia called for the UN to help broker a solution to the standoff after the countries failed to any headway in two days of talks over the disputed land near Preah Vihear, which legally belongs to Cambodia.

Thailand’s chief negotiator to the crisis called Wednesday for leaders of the two nations to meet, saying an existing border committee would not be able to solve the problem.

“At this stage I think it’s rather the leaders who must hold a summit as they are the decision makers,” armed forces head General Boonsrang Niumpradit told reporters, adding that Thai troops had been ordered to remain peaceful.

Thai Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej on Wednesday accused his Cambodian counterpart Hun Sen of capitalising on nationalist sentiment ahead of Sunday’s general election in Cambodia, saying talks would be “less intense” after the polls.

Hun Sen was widely tipped to cruise to victory even before the standoff broke out.

However in Thailand critics of Samak — already the target of street protests — have stoked controversies over Preah Vihear to fire up nationalist sentiment against him.

Thailand and Cambodia both claim land near the temple, positioning their troops by a small Buddhist pagoda at the foot of the mountain leading to Preah Vihear.

Cambodian and Thai soldiers gathered inside the pagoda compound did not carry weapons Wednesday, but troops in other parts of the disputed area remained armed as Thai soldiers dug a half-metre-deep trench.

The dispute erupted after three nationalist Thai protesters were arrested last week for jumping a barbed-wire fence to reach the temple, prompting armed troops to head to the border.

The World Court ruled in 1962 that Preah Vihear belongs to Cambodia. But the easiest entrance lies in Thailand.

A spat in 2003 over Cambodia’s Angkor Wat temple — the most significant symbol of the country’s ancient Khmer empire — sparked a night of riots in which Thailand’s embassy and several Thai-owned businesses were burned and looted.

Preah Vihear Temple and the Thai’s Misunderstanding of the World Court Judgment of 15 June 1962

By Bora Touch, Esq.

[Australia - 29 June 2008]

There are worrying signs of tension between Cambodia and Thailand over Preah Vihear temple.  This could escalate into war. It is a hot issue in Thai politics and the dispute has arisen from misunderstanding of the International Court of Justice Judgment of June 1962 on the part of Thai successive governments, politicians, Thai academics with except of a few such as Dr. Charnvit Kasetsiri.  The tensions have been exacerbated by incorrect and fraudulent statements made by Thai partisans. 

A fraudulent statement was recently made by Thai Democrat MP Sirichok Sopha   ”The ICJ ruled only the temple was under Cambodia’s sovereignty and Thailand obligated to hand the ruin temple to Cambodia, not soil under and surrounding the ruin“: The Nation, 25 June 2008. This has been the Thai theme since July 1962. The Thai Foreign Affairs Statement of 25 March 2008 reinforces this theme.

More recently, a Thai Columnist Nophakhun Limsamarnphunnop writes “the issue of the surrounding areas, currently in Thailand’s territory, would be complicated and the integrity of Preah Vihear complex would be compromised, given that a number of elements of the temple such as a giant reservoir and the Naga staircase are situated in Thai territory.”: The Nation 28 June 2008.

I wish to raise two issues I hope will eradicate any misunderstanding among the Thais;  There is nothing I can do with those who persist in knowingly making false statements:

1.     Did the International Court of Justice (“ICJ”) accept or rule as binding  all Cambodian-Thai boundary maps [1907-1908] including the Annex 1 Map  and the boundary line indicated on it ?

2.     What is the size of the “disputed” land?

ISSUE #1: Did the International Court of Justice (“ICJ”) accept or rule as binding  all Cambodian-Thai boundary maps [1907-1908] including the Annex 1 Map  and the boundary line indicated on it ?

At the ICJ hearing on 20 March 1962, Cambodia asked the Court to rule on (5) Final Submissions (claims) for Cambodia:

1. “To adjudge and declare that the map of the Dangrek sector (Annex I to the Memorial of Cambodia) was drawn up and published in the name and on behalf of the Mixed Delimitation Commission set up by the Treaty of 13 February 1904, that it sets forth the decisions taken by the said Commission and that, by reason of that fact and also of the subsequent agreements and conduct of the Parties, it presents a treaty character;”

2. “To adjudge and declare that the frontier line between Cambodia and Thailand, in the disputed region in the neighborhood of the Temple of Preah Vihear, is that which is marked on the map of the Commission of Delimitation between Indo-China and Siam (Annex I to the Memorial of Cambodia);”

3. “To adjudge and declare that the Temple of Preah Vihear is situated in territory under the sovereignty of the Kingdom of Cambodia“;

4. “To adjudge and declare that the Kingdom of Thailand is under an obligation to withdraw the detachments of armed forces it has stationed, since 1954, in Cambodian territory, in the ruins of the Temple of Preah Vihear“;

5. “To adjudge and declare that the sculptures, stelae, fragments of monuments, sandstone model and ancient pottery which have been removed from the Temple by the Thai authorities since 1954 are to be returned to the Government of the Kingdom of Cambodia by the Government of Thailand.”: ICJ Reports 1962, p. 11

In its reply at the Court hearing, (here I only repeated two of the relevant Thailand rebuttal submissions) Thailand objected to all 5 Submissions above as follows. 

1. The Annex I Map was not published in the name or on behalf of the Mixed Commission, but was prepared by the French section of the Mixed Commission alone, and published only in the name of the French section.
2. No decision of the Mixed Commission was recorded about the boundary at Preah Vihear.

In the ICJ operative provisions of the judgment of 15 June 1962, the  Court accepted Thai rebuttal Submissions 1 and partially 2. The Court found/ruled that:

 1. “the Temple of Preah Vihear is situated in territory under the sovereignty of Cambodia;”[Cambodia's Submission 3]

2. “Thailand is under an obligation to withdraw any military or police forces, or other guards or keepers, stationed by her at the Temple, or in its vicinity on Cambodian territory“; [Cambodia's Submission 4]

3. “Thailand is under an obligation to restore to Cambodia any objects of the kind specified in Cambodia’s fifth Submission which may, since the date of the occupation of the Temple by Thailand in 1954, have been removed from the Temple or the Temple area by the Thai authorities.”: ICJ Reports 1962, p. 36, 37. [Cambodia's Submission 5]

Using this as a reason, following the ICJ ruling in July 1962, the Thai Cabinet  dispatched a proces verbale to the United Nations in which, in essence, Thailand formally accepted the Court ruling and provided its “understanding” of the Court ruling and that is that, according to Thailand, the ICJ found that the Temple is located in Cambodian territory, but the Court rejected the Annex 1 Map and the border line indicated on it. Thailand unilaterally drew the new boundary line as it understood: (see Map “3“, Courtesy Aide Memoire of the Royal Government of Cambodia 1961.)

That is an incorrect understanding of the ICJ judgment by the Thais and the facts are as follows:

In Cambodia’s Submission 1 (and 2) Cambodia asked the Court to accept its very precisely wording contention/claim that Annex 1 Map was published on the authority of the Mixed Commission for Delimitation. The Court found that the Mixed Commission did not order or approve that the Maps be made. Because of the lack of necessary technical facilities, Siamese Government asked the French Government to make the boundary Maps, including the Map in question. Four French officials three of whom were members of the first Mixed Commission established under the 1904 Treaty, were appointed to prepare the Maps. The Court held that:

“What is certain is that the map must have had a basis of some sort, and the Court thinks there can be no reasonable doubt that it was based on the work of the surveying officers in the Dangrek sector.  Being one of the series of maps of the frontier areas produced by French Government topographical experts in response to a request made by the Siamese authorities, printed and published by a Paris firm of repute, all of which was clear from the map itself, it was thus invested with an official standing;  it had its own inherent technical authority;  and its provenance was open and obvious.  The Court must nevertheless conclude that, in its inception, and at the moment of its production, it had no binding character” : ICJ Report 1962, 21

But the lack of the Commission’s authority to publish the Map was not important and it was not the relevant question. The Court held that:

“The real question … which is the essential one in this case, is whether the Parties did adopt the Annex I map, and the line indicated on it, as representing the outcome of the work of delimitation of the frontier in the region of Preah Vihear, thereby conferring on it a binding character.”: ICJ Report 1962, 22. (emphasis added).

The Court found that this was exactly what Thailand (and Cambodia) had done; for instance, as the Court pointed out, the following facts supported that Thailand adopted the Maps:  

• Siam’s official wide circulation of the Map,
• Siam asked France for more Map copies,
• the silence of the Siamese members of the Mixed Commission, who saw the map
• the silence of the then governor Khukhan province (now Si Saket), who saw the Map.

The Parties thus accepted the map and the line on it. The Court held “the acceptance of the Annex I map by the parties caused the map to enter the treaty settlement [1904] and to become an integral part of it [the 1904 Treaty]” . This process, according to the Court, did not involve a departure from, or violation of, the Treaty of 1904 because even if the map line diverged from the watershed line, the Map was nonetheless accepted by the parties. 

The Court held, finally that ” the indication of the line of the watershed in Article 1 of the 1904 Treaty was itself no more than an obvious and convenient way of describing a frontier line objectively, though in the general terms. There is, however, no reason to think that the Parties attached any special importance to the line of the watershed as such, as compared with the overriding importance, in the interests of finality, of adhering to the map line as eventually delimited and as accepted by them. The Court, therefore, feels bound, as a matter of treaty interpretation, to pronounce in favor of the line as mapped in the disputed area“: ICJ Report 1962 p. 33 (emphasis added).

Further clarity of the issue (boundary line on the Map) is seen in the Separate Declaration of 2 majority member Judges, Judge Tanaka and Judge Morelli which states “The claim as it is formulated in Cambodia’s Application is directed not to the return of the Temple as such, but rather to sovereignty over the portion of territory in which the Temple is situated“: ICJ Reports 1962, p 38. 

It is beyond dispute.  The Annex 1 Map (and the boundary line indicated on it) was ruled by the Court as valid and binding. (ICJ Annex 1 Map, attached marked “4″: ICJ Reports 1962) 

Both Thailand and Cambodia had accepted the Annex 1 Map and were to accept it.  Case closed!

ISSUE #2: The size of the “disputed” land

The attached Maps “A” and Map “B” shows the lines of Annex 1 Map and Thai line. The “disputed” land where the temple is situated is more than 4.6 square kilometres larger than the Thailand has claimed:(see Thai internal working map attached “A”, the blue writings are my additions) 

From the cliff or the Temple’s main sanctuary to the stone staircase (the main reservoir) is about 650m: (see Preah Vihear Temple Plan attached, courtesy Korat Magazine 2007). 

Map marked Map “B” is an internal Thai working paper. A square on the Map, as correctly pointed by the Thai official, represents 2 square kilometres (2 tarang kilometr, red handwriting on top, right hand side of Map “B”) on the Map. If you look at the square which covers temple, you will see that from the temple’s stone staircase and the grand reservoir to the boundary line shows at least 2.6 km. (Note: the writings on the French map (1:200,000 scale) in blue and pink are my additions) 

Thus the road (the road head) built by Thailand and the Thai Police checkpoint at the road head are therefore at least 2.6 km inside Cambodia.

(Please click on immage to zoom in)

Updated Video on Preah Vihear Issue

July 22, 2008

July 21, 2008

July 20, 2008

July 19, 2008

July 18, 2008

July 17, 2008

Thai, Cambodian Forces Build Up Along Border, Cambodia Says

Wednesday, July 23, 2008

PREAH VIHEAR, Cambodia (AFP)–Thailand and Cambodia have built up forces at more points along their common border, stepping up a week-long standoff over disputed territory, Cambodian officials said Wednesday.

More than 500 Thai troops are facing off against at least 1,000 Cambodian soldiers over a tiny area of land near the ancient Preah Vihear temple, but thousands more Thai troops have been positioned along the border, they said.

“There are about 1,000 Thai troops in their territory — there’s a military buildup there,” said Cambodian cabinet spokesman Phay Siphan, who estimated about 4,000 Thai troops in total have gathered across the entire border.

Thailand denied it was reinforcing the frontier.

“Thailand has not been building up forces along the border,” deputy army spokeswoman Col. Sirichan Ngathong said.

“We maintain the same amount of soldiers, and more than 400 soldiers were sent to the overlapping area.”

Cambodian officials said both sides had sent more troops and heavy weapons to a spot near the former Khmer Rouge stronghold Anlong Veng, where there is also disputed territory.

“There are more (Thai) troops now at Anlong Veng than there are here (at Preah Vihear). There are tanks and artillery,” said an official on condition of anonymity.

Cambodia has also sent heavy weapons to the area, said the Cambodian colonel, who has close ties to Thai armed forces. In neighboring Banteay Meanchay province, police chief Hun Hean said Thailand had increased its troop presence directly across the border by up to 600 since the standoff began July 15.

Thailand and Cambodia have both stationed troops on a small piece of disputed soil near a small Buddhist pagoda at the foot of the mountain leading to the 11th century Preah Vihear temple.

Although Thailand says it wants to solve the dispute through bilateral talks, Thailand’s U.N. ambassador said the issue would be raised at a meeting of the U.N. Security Council on Thursday at Cambodia’s request. Cambodia has also asked for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations’ help.

The dispute erupted after three nationalist Thai protesters were arrested last week for jumping a barbed-wire fence to reach the temple, prompting armed troops to head to the border.

UN Security Council to discuss Thai-Cambodia dispute: ambassador

BANGKOK (AFP) – The UN Security Counil is expected to discuss a tense military standoff between Cambodia and Thailand this week, Thailand’s ambassador to the United Nations said Wednesday.

A Cambodian soldier stands guard at Preah Vihear temple

Graphic fact file on the temple dispute

Don Pramudwinai said the Security Council meeting on Thursday was set to discuss the week-long issue involving troops from both countries facing off near an ancient temple on their border.

“I have been informed that the UN has included Preah Vihear (temple) on the emergency agenda to be discussed at the Security Council meeting tomorrow (Thursday),” he told reporters here.

The comments follow a call from the Cambodian government on Tuesday for the world body to help broker a solution to the standoff.

Two days of diplomacy between the countries failed to make any headway in the controversy centred on disputed land around the ruins of the 11th century Hindu temple overlooking Cambodia’s jungle.

More than 500 Thai troops are facing off against at least 1,000 Cambodian soldiers over the small patch of land near the temple, that belongs to Cambodia but has sparked decades of tensions with Thailand.

Thailand’s chief negotiator to the crisis called for a leaders’ summit, saying an existing General Border Committee (GBC) of officials from the two countries would not be enough to solve the problem.

“It’s unlikely that the conflict could be settled at the GBC meeting,” he told reporters.

“At this stage I think it’s rather the leaders who must hold a summit as they are the decision makers,” Boonsrang said, adding that Thai troops had been ordered to remain peaceful.

Thailand and Cambodia both claim their soldiers remain on their own soil, stationed by a small Buddhist pagoda at the foot of the mountain leading to the Preah Vihear temple.

Boonsrang also said there was now urgent need for Thailand to appoint a new foreign minister to tackle the dispute after Noppadon Pattama resigned in a legal battle two weeks ago.

The dispute erupted after three nationalist Thai protesters were arrested last week for jumping a barbed-wire fence to reach the temple, prompting armed troops to head to the border.

The World Court ruled in 1962 that Preah Vihear belongs to Cambodia. But the easiest entrance lies in Thailand.

Thai-Cambodia spat trumps ASEAN talks with big powers

Tue Jul 22, 2008 1:41pm IST

By Bill Tarrant

SINGAPORE (Reuters) – A smouldering border dispute between Thailand and Cambodia grabbed the limelight on Tuesday as Southeast Asian nations began meetings with Asia-Pacific powers on economic and security issues.

Foreign ministers from the Association of South East Asian Nations were meeting with their counterparts from China, Japan and South Korea on Tuesday for talks that would certainly include regional diplomacy over North Korea’s nuclear programme.

But with Thailand and Cambodia in a military showdown over an 11th-century temple on their border claimed by both nations, ASEAN has been distracted from big power diplomacy by one of the periodic intramural spats that feeds skepticism about the 41-year-old group’s ambitions to become a coherent political and economic bloc.

Ministers from Thailand and Cambodia briefed their ASEAN counterparts at a working lunch on Tuesday about the situation after both sides sent hundreds of soldiers and heavy artillery to the border in recent days.

Cambodia wants ASEAN to get involved but Thailand does not want to internationalise the dispute, diplomats said afterward.

“The lunch was very, very unofficial, very informal, talking about many, many issues,” ASEAN Secretary General Surin Pitsuwan told reporters.

“Just expressing some views on issues that would affect the region, that would affect ASEAN, that would have some implications on the image and credibility of ASEAN.”

The dispute is testing ASEAN’s unity while it is in the midst of ratifying a charter that would turn the 41-year-old grouping into an EU-style, rules-based organisation.

SLAP IN FACE

“The border engagement is not only relevant in terms of the problem that we see between the two states, but also it could be a test to ASEAN,” said Malaysian Foreign Minister Rais Yatim. “For the first time now, two of its members are facing what we call ‘a border predicament’”.

The Jakarta Post in an editorial on Tuesday said the two countries “have slapped ASEAN right in its face at a critical time” when the group is holding meetings with Asia-Pacific powers, and in the midst of ratifying its charter.

The fracas did manage to shove Myanmar out of the spotlight it usually occupies with great uneasiness at ASEAN meetings.

They began this time with a rare ray of optimism on Sunday from the country’s junta, which seemed to indicate detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi could be freed in about six months.

But Myanmar Foreign Minister Nyan Win said his remarks had been misunderstood and Suu Kyi would stay in detention until at least May of 2009.

That clarification came as ASEAN urged Myanmar to “take bolder steps” towards a peaceful transition to democracy and to release all political detainees, including Suu Kyi.

That was the first time ASEAN had ever specifically mentioned Suu Kyi in one of its communiques, diplomats said.

ASEAN has, however, led the effort to coordinate international aid to help victims of Cyclone Nargis, which tore through Myanmar’s Irrawaddy Delta in May and left 138,000 killed or missing.

On Monday, ASEAN released a report saying survivors need at least $1 billion over the next three years after the cyclone caused some $4 billion in damage.

North Korea will move into the frame when ASEAN holds talks on Tuesday with China, Japan and South Korea on regional security and trade issues.

North Korean nuclear diplomacy will take centre stage on Wednesday when U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice meets North Korean Foreign Minister Pak Ui Chun along with the foreign ministers from China, Japan, South Korea and Russia — who together make up the “six party” nuclear talks.

It will be the first time the six foreign ministers have met as a group since the six party talks began five years ago.

Cambodia warns Thai ‘aggression’ threatening region

Radio Australia, Australia

Cambodia’s prime minister has accused Thailand of unwarranted aggression by moving troops into disputed border territory, warning the action threatens peace in the region.

Hun Sen made the statement in a letter to the United Nations cultural agency, UNESCO, after two days of diplomacy failed to resolve the week-long military stand-off centred on the ruins of the Preah Vihear temple.

The tensions began after UNESCO early this month awarded World Heritage status to the temple, considered the finest example of ancient Khmer architecture after the famous Angkor Wat complex.

The UN recognition infuriated Thai nationalists, and now more than 500 Thai troops are facing at least 1,000 Cambodian soldiers over a tiny area of land near the temple.

Recent crisis talks among Southeast Asian foreign ministers in Singapore failed to make any headway.

Senior Cambodian and Thai defence officials have also ended eight hours of negotiations with no resolution.

Cambodia seeks UN intervention in Thai dispute

By SOPHENG CHEANG 

PREAH VIHEAR, Cambodia (AP) – Cambodia asked the U.N. Security Council on Tuesday to intervene in its dispute with Thailand over land near an ancient temple, saying the standoff had created “an imminent state of war.”

A Cambodian soldier relaxes near a rocket launcher outside a Buddhist pagoda where Thai soldiers have occupied, near Preah Vihear temple in Preah Vihear province, Cambodia, Tuesday, July 22, 2008. Cambodia has requested an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council to break a military stalemate with neighboring Thailand over disputed frontier territory around a historic temple. (AP Photo/Heng Sinith)

Cambodian soldiers relax as they hold rocket launchers outside a Buddhist pagoda where Thai soldiers have occupied, near Preah Vihear temple in Preah Vihear province, Cambodia, Tuesday, July 22, 2008. Cambodia has requested an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council to break a military stalemate with neighboring Thailand over disputed frontier territory around a historic temple. (AP Photo/Heng Sinith)

But a clash seemed a remote possibility near the hilltop Preah Vihear temple, where more than 4,000 troops from both countries were camped out. The soldiers – some without their weapons – shared cigarettes, ate and chatted together in a disputed area a few hundred yards from the site.

Cambodian Foreign Minister Hor Namhong, using the harshest terms yet in the confrontation, said he had no choice but to appeal to the U.N. after discussions with Thailand on Monday failed to produce a breakthrough in the weeklong crisis. He made a similar request to the grouping of Southeast Asian nations.

“In the face of this imminent state of war, this very serious threat to our independence and territorial integrity, we have an obligation to resort to the U.N. Security Council,” Hor Namhong said.

Thai Foreign Ministry spokesman Tharit Charungvat rejected the appeal to the U.N., saying he still felt “that bilateral options are still not exhausted.”

After the meeting with Hor Namhong, U.S. Ambassador Joseph Mussomeli told reporters that “we’re disappointed that this has happened.”

“The movement of troops is something that is always worrisome,” he said following the talks, which included other foreign ambassadors. “When you have that many young men with that many weapons in that close proximity, there’s always a danger of violence.”

The dispute over 1.8 square miles of land near the Preah Vihear temple escalated earlier this month when UNESCO approved Cambodia’s application to have the complex named a World Heritage Site.

Thailand sent troops to the border July 15 after anti-government demonstrators attacked Thai Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej’s government for supporting Cambodia’s application to UNESCO. They claim the temple’s new status will undermine Thailand’s claim to land around the temple. Cambodia responded with its own deployment.

On the Thai side of the border, Thailand’s regional commander Lt. Gen. Sujit Sithiprapa said he was confident that fighting would not break out.

“Although we have troops up there, there is clear understanding and clear order that no one will use force,” Sujit told an Associated Press reporter. “The governments will have to resolve legal issues but the situation here remains normal.”

Similar sentiments were expressed by Cambodian officers. “Nothing has changed. We have received orders to continue maintaining patience” after the talks failed, Cambodian Brig. Gen. Chea Keo said Tuesday.

But the atmosphere in a border town of Kantaralak in Thailand’s Sisaket province was less optimistic, with villagers expressing fears that the government would resort to military action, which would damage the tourism industry.

“I don’t want to lose Thai soil to Cambodia and I believe Thailand would do everything to protect our sovereignty,” Boonruem Pongsapan, a local teacher at the border town of Kantaralak, said. “But I am scared there will be military action. Most parents of my students rely on tourists. What would we do now?”

Associated Press writers Ambika Ahuja and Sutin Wannabovorn in Bangkok, Thailand, Ker Munthit in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, and Sumeth Panpetch along the Thai-Cambodian border contributed to this report.

ASEAN Fails to Resolve Cambodia-Thailand Border Dispute

By VOA News 22 July 2008

The 10 members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations failed to resolve a simmering border dispute between Cambodia and Thailand during an emergency meeting Tuesday.

Diplomats said both countries presented their side of the issue during a lunch meeting, but no progress was made.

Thai soldiers enter to a Cambodian Buddhist pagoda, near Preah Vihear temple in Preah Vihear province, Cambodia, 22 Jul 2008

Cambodia has requested an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council to mediate the military standoff with Thailand over disputed territory around a historic temple.

The appeal to the world body Tuesday came a day after talks between top defense officials from Thailand and Cambodia failed to end the stalemate.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has called for both sides to exercise restraint.  

Both countries have voiced willingness to peacefully resolve the territorial dispute.

The dispute centers on ownership of about 4.6 square kilometers of land surrounding the 900-year-old Preah Vihear temple. An estimated 4,000 troops are facing off near the ancient Hindu temple.

Tensions flared last week, when Thai soldiers crossed the border to follow three Thai protesters trying to reach the temple. The protesters were detained for illegally entering Cambodia but were later released.

The U.N. cultural organization, UNESCO, recently approved Cambodia’s application to name the Preah Vihear temple a World Heritage site. The move renewed a decades-old dispute over who owns the temple and the land around it.

The International Court of Justice granted Cambodia sovereignty over the temple in 1962, but did not rule on which country owns the surrounding land.

Some information for this report was provided by AFP and AP.